With Replacement in Place, Crisafulli Closes House Leadership Committee

TALLAHASSEE — With his successor formally in place, House Speaker Steve Crisafulli last month shuttered a fundraising committee that allowed him to give up to five-figure checks directly to legislative campaigns.

Crisafulli started the House Republican Campaign Committee in August 2013 and raised $3.6 million, more than half of which came from the Republican Party of Florida.

The committee was classified as an Affiliated Party Committee, which is a type of fundraising mechanism revived by lawmakers in 2010 after being banned for two decades.

State law dictates that an Affiliated Party Committee — commonly referred to as leadership committees — can only be led by an incoming legislative leader.